Melting the Ice
by apk493
Summary: Rated M for language and future lemons. MOC x FGlaceon. Alan gets a Pokemon from a friend who doesn't want to be with him. How does he handle it? Music references and bad jokes inbound.
1. Surprise Roommate

**Keep in mind that the setting of the story is just like that of current day reality, just with Pokémon existing in the same reality. All technology is the same, with history being slightly altered to fit continuity.**

I was staring at my phone, sitting bored out of my mind in my last lecture of the day. Calculus. I wasn't bad at calc, I was just way ahead of the game because of a class I took in high school. I chose to retake the class anyway, just for the easy GPA.

I was staring at my phone's background, a mash-up of the legendary dogs from Johto. They were very much real as they were legends, although the Johto Region was halfway across the globe. They were still my favorite legendary trio nonetheless.

I locked the phone, staring at the blank screen and the reflection it produced. My thick, dark brown hair was a mess from a strong breeze that blew across campus while I was walking to my lecture. I ran a hand through my hair as a makeshift comb. My brown eyes were drooping, sleep still lingering from this morning. I needed to shave. I made a mental note of that. My blue t-shirt was sitting crooked. Not that I cared. I just wanted to stand up and stretch, but I'd probably get rebuked for it. My professor was pretty strict.

Suddenly I heard the phrase I had been waiting for. "Well, that's it for today class. Have a safe weekend, I will see you back here on Monday," the professor said with a slight Eastern accent. I wasn't being stereotypical; he still hadn't lost his accent, even after being in the region for over 10 years. The whole class gathered up their stuff and tried to cram out the one set of double doors at the same time.

Just as I broke out of the cluster of students eager to start their weekend, I heard someone call from behind me. "Hey Alan, wait up for a second, will ya?" I turned around to see a medium height, well built guy in his early twenties walking briskly to catch back up to me. He had blonde hair longer than mine, but not as thick, green eyes, and was dressed in a gray tank top and gym shorts, even though it was only 65 degrees out. It was Ryan, an old high school classmate of mine. He was a year older than me and played hockey for the university, but he wasn't too good at math, and must have had to retake the class. I hadn't even noticed him this year because the class was so big.

"Hey Ryan, what's up?" I tried to give him a sincere smile, but I wasn't really that close with him. I had been in a couple of classes with him back in high school, and could carry on a decent conversation with him, but he wasn't really someone I hung out with often.

He looked exasperated after the previous class. He must have been writing down some serious notes or something. "Hey, could you do me a favor?" he asked.

"Yeah sure, what do you need."

"You know I'm not that great at math right?" he gestured at his textbook. "Well, I'm really trying hard to do well this year. Think of it as a little New Year's Resolution."

"Umm, it's the middle of the fall semester."

"Doesn't matter. Truth is I need you to take something off my hands. You ever have your own Pokémon before?" He took off his backpack and was digging around inside for something.

I eyed him somewhat suspiciously. "Yeah, my grandfather gave me a Growlithe when I was young, but I had to leave him at home when I got a dorm up here."

"Good," he said. He stood back up, finding what he was looking for. "Then you'll be fine for this." He held out his hand; in it was a Poké Ball. "This is a Pokémon I got when I first came up here. Her name is Thalia. She's a Glaceon." He threw me the Poké Ball, and I barely caught it, not expecting the casual throw. "She's just become a little too much of a liability with me in my education. I can't focus on her and grades at the same time. She should be fine in your dorm. She was staying with me for the past year, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal."

I thought to myself _"You give me a Pokémon that you've supposedly been caring for, and say, 'Oh it's cool. Shouldn't be that big of a deal'?" Really dude?_ I guess it was just my own training methods kicking in. Back when I had my Growlithe, I spent entire days and weekends with him in the woods behind my pap's house. Must've just been a different way of thinking.

I snapped back to reality when I realized I was staring out into space. "Well, my roommate got switched into a different hall," I told him, "so I'll have the extra space. I can just lay down a blanket and pillow or two, right? I don't have a Pokémon bed just lying around my dorm."

"Yeah, she'll be fine. That's basically what I did for her back in my room," He said nonchalantly. I didn't want to judge his Pokémon-owning skills when I didn't know him that well, but I was beginning to get the suspicion he might have been more neglectful than he went on. "Here, if you need anything when it comes to her, just Skype me." He handed me a piece of paper with his screen name on it.

"Alright. Thanks man. I'll give you a call if it's necessary."

"Hey, seriously, thanks a ton for doing this for me," he said. I could tell he was sincere. "I really gotta straighten out my grades this year. My parents have had it up to here" – he brought his hand up to his neck for emphasis – "with me not taking school seriously. If I work out a rhythm, I'll take her back, but for now, she's yours." He turned around to walk down the hallway. "I'll catcha later, dude!" He called over his shoulder. And with that, he disappeared into the crowd of students.

I stared down at my hand, looking at the Poké Ball that supposedly held a Glaceon in it. I really hope I didn't get in over my head. At least it was a weekend, so I didn't have to worry about work on top of the new addition to my room.

As I walked back to my room, I wondered how this was going to work out. What was Thalia's attitude like? I was really hoping she wasn't a snobby, spoiled kind of Pokémon. Those were the worst. I also reminded myself to check with my RA, to make sure he knew I was going to have a 'mon with me in the dorms. His name was Sanjay - his family was straight from India - but he was pretty chill. He mostly stayed in his room and worked on electronics the whole day. I made a mental note to stop by his room before I stayed in for the night. The less surprises, the better.

I finally got back to my dorm room. It was on the first floor, so I didn't have to take any stairs. I took my key card out from my pocket, slid it through the scanner lock, and opened the door.

I always kept my room around 60 degrees, even in the winter. In hindsight, that was probably a good move if a Glaceon was about to move in. I loved my room. My old roommate had moved out the second week of the year because he switched majors, and no one else came to fill it, so I basically had the room to myself. When you first walked in, there is a small kitchenette, complete with a mini refrigerator and mini microwave above it. It also had a couple countertops. Beyond that, on one side, was a closet for extra clothes and jackets for when it got cold in the winter. Across was the door to my bathroom. I was placed in the nice dorms that had personal bathrooms for every room, one fact that made the whole no-roommate thing even sweeter. The rest of the room opened up into a bigger living space.

In one corner was my bed, lofted up like the top bunk of a bunk bed set, with space underneath it. I kept a futon underneath for the nights when I didn't feel like climbing up to actually get into my bed. Across from that was a simple coffee table with a 20 inch monitor on it. That was my TV. In the other corner of the room was my desk and gaming setup. I worked a lot with music, so my computer consists of a laptop, two extra monitors, and a wireless mouse and keyboard. I like to think of it as my own personal mission control. Lastly, on the outside wall was a window to the outside, the front lawn of the building just beneath it, for the days when I wanted fresh air blowing through the room.

I opened up the closet and got a few extra pillows and a big blanket, and arranged them at the foot of the futon as best as I could to resemble a Pokémon bed. It wasn't the best, but it was better than just sleeping on the floor.

I pulled Thalia's Poké Ball out of my pocket. "Now is just as good as any time, I guess," I said to the ball. "Check out your new home for a while, Thalia." I released pressure on the ball, and Thalia appeared in a brilliant flash of white light on the floor in front of me.

She was a lot bigger than what I was expecting. I was familiar with how tall most eeveelutions are, but her full 2'7" height was intimidating when standing right next to you. She could probably put her paws on my shoulders with no problem if she stood on her hind legs. My first thought was that I might need to make her a bigger bed.

At first, she looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. "Gla?" she questioned. Her sweeping gaze found me, standing just inside the room. "Glaceon?"

"Hey Thalia," I said. It sounded dumb, but what else are you supposed to say to a Pokémon you already know, but they don't know you? "I'm Alan. Ryan gave you to me for a little bit while he works out some school stuff. You'll be staying with me for a couple days or so." That last part was a lie. I had no clue how long it would take Ryan to straighten out his grades. Maybe she didn't understand English anyway.

"Glaceon. Eon." She adopted a stubborn look really fast, and tried shoving her way past me to the door, but I blocked her. Great, apparently she understands human language fine.

"No Thalia. You can't just run around campus. I know you want to go back to Ryan, but he's got some business he needs to take care of first."

I forced her back away from the door, and she sat down in the middle of the floor with her paws crossed. "Gla Glaceon." She gave me the Pokémon equivalent of a glare.

Great. I got on her bad side already. At that moment, I felt my stomach growl, and I'm pretty sure I heard hers too. I looked at the clock on my dresser, which read 8:28. "Shit, I still need to get you food," I said aloud. I had totally forgotten to pick some Pokémon food up on the way to the dorm. Thalia just rolled her eyes, probably thinking I was an idiot. Which, at that moment, had some truth in it. "I'll be right back Thalia, I gotta pick up some food for you." I was halfway out the door when I heard her mumble something under her breath, so I took it she heard me.

Ten minutes later, and I was on the way back to the room with enough Pokéfood (quality food but still reasonably priced for a college kid) for a week and a couple of poffins for her, if she decided to lighten up a bit. I stopped at Sanjay's room on my way down the hall. I set down my bag outside his room and knocked on the door.

"It's open! Come in!" called a voice from within the room. I opened the door to find Sanjay at his desk tinkering with some electronic device. Shocker. That's an electrical engineering major for you.

"What's up Alan? Need anything?" he asked without looking up from his work. His glasses had slid so far down his nose they were practically falling off, but her hadn't noticed.

"Hey SJ. Just wanted to let you know that a friend of mine gave me a Pokémon to look after for a while, so she'll be staying in my room for a couple weeks." Again I threw around a random stretch of time because, at the moment, who knew how long she would be with me.

At the mention of a Pokémon in my room, Sanjay quickly lost interest in whatever he was working on. He turned to me suddenly. "Wait. You're gonna have a Pokémon in your room with you?"

"Yeah, is that a problem? I'm the only guy in my room, remember? I have the space for her." Normally Sanjay was pretty cool with these things. His reaction had me worried.

He got up from his chair and started rummaging through a pile of things on his desk. "No, I could care less about her staying with you. I just need a favor from you, that's all." He picked up a device no bigger than a Bluetooth earpiece.

I walked over to get a closer look at what he was doing. "What, you want me to spy on some frat houses or something? That thing looks like it came straight from the set of NCIS."

Sanjay chuckled. "Ha, no. This-" he showed me the device "-is a transmitter. A little invention of mine. It lets you understand Pokéspeech as if they were speaking like you or me. I came up with it for a audio class last year but didn't have a way to test it. So, no, no spying. But now that there is a Pokémon in your room, you're going to do the testing for me."

He threw me the device. I looked at it, and tried to put it on my ear like a normal piece of tech. "So, it just lets me hear whatever they are saying? Like tones and pitches too?"

"It's supposed to. Like I said, I haven't been able to test it yet. So you're on a frontier, bud. People have come up with stuff like this before, but nothing this small. What kind of species is this Pokémon?"

"She's a glaceon," I told him. "She's been a bit temperamental as of late, that's why I asked."

"Yeah, it should be fine. If you have any problems, or it sounds like she's a big black guy or something, just give it back, and I'll tune it a little more."

I grinned. Normal Sanjay humor. Glad to see he was in a good mood. "Alright dude, thanks for the help. I'll let you know how it goes."

He was already back at his desk, soldering something. I closed his door behind me, and walked briskly back to my own.

I was about to open my door, key card in hand, I heard a noise. I froze. I heard it again briefly, like fur rubbing against the door. _That sneaky 'eon. She's going to try to slip right by me,_ I thought. I set the food down, had the key in one hand, and tensed.

Sure enough, as soon as the door was open a crack, she tried to run past me. I was expecting it, so I bent down and scooped her up by her torso as she tried to bolt away. I picked her up, flailing and struggling, and brought her back into the room. She was saying something in her language, so I powered on Sanjay's translator thing and hoped for the best.

"-can't believe that sonofa. Ugh. Better get his damn hands off my before I scratch the hell out of him-" she was complaining and running her mouth, while still trying to break free. I tried tossing her into the room, but all 57 pounds of her took its toll on my one arm. I basically just dropped her. She padded back in front of the futon and pouted again.

"You should really watch your language sometime, girl." I decided to try and talk a bit while preparing our food. I threw some ramen noodles in the microwave for me. Classic college dinner.

"Great, he picked up on my tone. I gotta watch it with this kid. He's smart." She was still giving me her little Poké-glare from the floor. I set down a bowl of food in front of her.

"Yeah I am kinda smart. It's why I'm here. Checking your word choice helps too."

She didn't have a witty retort for that one. She stared at me, at a loss for words. "I don't believe it. There's no way you understand what I'm saying," she said flatly.

"Well, you better believe it, cause I can hear every single word," I said, tapping Sanjay's translator. I'd have to tell him it works well tomorrow.

"Wow. That's incredible," she said, her haughtiness replaced with awe. It was like just being able to understand her improved her opinion of me tenfold. "I've never seen a human who can do that."

"Well, you must not get out much," I joked. I hadn't noticed until now, but when she wasn't pissed at me, her voice was really calming. It sounded just like a gentle fall breeze, cool enough to be pleasant but not too cold to be irritating.

Just then - _BOOM_ \- a clap of thunder exploded like a cannon outside. I looked out my window, and it just started pouring. "Well, not that we're going out right now anyway. Looks like plans for tonight are cancelled." Even though it was Friday night, nobody would want to party with a storm outside.

I walked over to the futon and sat down. It felt good to just lay there after being on my feet all day. I closed my eyes and relaxed briefly.

"Hey." I sat up to see Thalia nudging my leg. "I'm not sitting around while you decide to take a nap. Tell me more about why Ryan gave me to you."

"Well, basically, he caught up with me after my class this evening, and said he needed to take a break from some responsibilities to focus on others. He said he needed someone to care for you while he really tried hard to bring his grades up. He regretted it, but it was necessary. I guess he thinks I'm responsible or something."

"You better be responsible! I'm not going to stay with an idiot taking care of me," she yelled, the hair on her neck standing up.

"Hey, hey relax." I put my hands up in a "back off" gesture. "That was sarcasm. I'm pretty responsible. Ryan knows that. He knew me before just this year. We went to high school together. He trusts me with you. That should be evidence enough.

She calmed down a bit. "Oh, sorry. I'm not real good at the whole 'sarcasm' thing."

"Well, that's basically 90% of how I talk, so I'll have to teach you."

"Okay, teach me then." She sat down in front of me, back paws tucked underneath her.

I glanced at the clock again. 10:52. I yawned after seeing it. Boy, those 5:00 PM calc classes really wear you down. "Yeah, we'll start that tomorrow. I'm tired, your probably tired, so I'm getting ready for bed."

She gave me a mocking look. "Oh, and you're so responsible? You don't even have a box for me."

"A box? What are you talking about?" She stumped me on that one.

"A box for me to sleep in? What, do you think I'm just gonna sleep on the floor?"

"A box? I'm not that cruel. I set up a bed for you over there." I pointed to the makeshift bed I made earlier. "If it's too small, let me know, I'll get some more."

I left her to go clean up in my bathroom before bed. When I walked out, she was still staring at the makeshift bed, mouth open.

"What, am I really that bad at making beds?" I chuckled at my own dumb joke.

"No, it's just… Ryan never gave me this much for bedding before. Are you, like, trying to impress me or something?" she inquired.

"Umm… yeah, let's go with that. It's your first night, so you might as well be comfortable." I was starting to doubt Ryan's methods of Pokémon treatment.

She jumped right into the bed, stretching out and sighing with comfort. Points for Team Alan. I smiled, satisfied she was happy, turned out the light, climbed up into my own bed, and was soon fast asleep.

 **Well boys and girls, I'm back with a new story. No, it's not a one-shot lemon. I'm going for actual storytelling here. Probably going to be five or more chapters. There will be lemons later, though, but if you're not here for that, there will be warnings. Follow the story or me to get alerts when I motivate my lazy but to write some more. Hopefully it won't take all summer, but we'll see! Favorite if you liked it, review it and tell me if you didn't, it's the only way I'll get better.**

 **Also, for those who have been following me for a while, or read my other stories, you may have seen someone from Critics United posting some crap in my one story's review section. Yes, I'm aware of it. No, I don't agree with their methods or ideals, and I could probably make an entire story based on a rant, but this isn't the time or place for that. Just know, in the event they delete my account, you can find me on inkbunny or FurAffinity under the same name as here. I'll re-upload all of my stuff there. On that note, until next time!**


	2. A Few Days Later

**I'm flattered on the amount of support this story got in only a couple days. It encouraged me to continue writing earlier than I might of otherwise. I would encourage anyone reading now to go back a chapter and read the author's note if they haven't already. In the event that this gets taken down for reasons you may very well be aware of, that way you'll know where to find me. Without further ado:**

 _A few days later._

I was working at my command center, piecing together soundbytes together. Clicking and dragging lines of sound back to back, adding my own little touches here and there to keep the overall sound fluid throughout.

Thalia squeezed her head in between my arm and the desk. "What are you up to?" she asked.

I took a break from staring at the screen to explain the program to her. "Well, I'm putting together a mix. I'm scheduled for a couple hours at the campus club in a few weeks, and I want to get a head start on this show I'm working out."

"What do you mean a mix?" She looked at me, her expression totally lost.

I sighed, not sure where to start. "Okay, so you see these separate arrangements of bars?" I pointed to the screen, a couple lines of sound in different spots on the program.

She jumped up so she was standing with her back paws on my chair and her front ones on my desk so she could see the screen better. "Mmm-hmm," she said after following my finger.

"So those are all different pieces of songs. When I make a mix, I string different parts of different songs together for a continuous piece of music. That way I can take a number of songs that may be only five or six minutes long and make a mix that could be hours long."

"Oh okay. Is this the really electronic stuff you listen too?" She eyed me up curiously. I occasionally played music off my computer while I was working or studying, and she had been catching on to my music tastes.

"Yeah, my EDM stuff. That's the kind of club it is." She jumped off the chair and went over to her bed. "You know, you never really told me whether you like that stuff or not. Did Ryan ever play anything for you?"

She flinched a bit. Very subtle, but I caught it. I forgot she was still sensitive of the whole Him-giving-her-to-me thing. "I mean, I'm not crazy about it," she said after a pause, "but some stuff I hear is good. Some is just too… I really don't know a word for it. Generic?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding, "I know what you're saying. Sometimes it's hard. To come up with something unique, I mean. Distinguishable. That's why I usually stick to just making mixes of stuff. I find things I like, put them together, add a couple of my own personal touches to it, and play it for crowds. More often than not, if I like something, a decent amount of others will like it."

"Okay, but why go to these clubs? What is it that makes them so fun?"

I thought about that question for a while. "You know, I'm not really sure. I guess it's a different experience for everyone. I personally like it because of the atmosphere. It's a pretty cool thing, but it's hard to describe. Maybe I'll take you someday."

"Hmm. I'll think about it. I've heard a lot of drunk people hang out at those places."

"Yeah, but it's not too bad of a problem. Most people aren't really that drunk, because most of us are underage anyway. No one wants kicked out. And the ones who get really drunk aren't that bad either. Just annoying at worst."

"Well, I'm not convinced." Thalia turned around towards the door. "Hey, are you busy tonight?"

"Not really, why?"

"Let's go battle at the gym tonight."

I smirked. I had been practicing with her whenever I had a little spare time. She must be getting cocky. "Okay. I'll finish up here, and we can go for a couple hours after dinner." I saved my progress on the mix. I was half an hour in, so that's decent progress for now.

"Deal."

After a quick meal in the dorm, Thalia and I walked down to the campus' battling gym.

This wasn't your normal college gymnasium. This gym was set up specifically for battling. The floor was a split between different terrains. Today they had it set up so that most of the field was covered in rocky outcrops and small boulders. Also spread out were a couple of pools of water. It wasn't evident from above, but all of the experienced battlers knew that they were connected underwater with small tunnels no bigger than a Bibarel. The staff also set up a couple of raised platforms above the rest of the terrain, which were spread out along the field.

Thalia was taking in the scene. "Wow, this place is pretty extensive."

"Yeah, the few professors and staff who actually take interest in Pokémon battling take pride in making sure the battling facility is top tier for the students who also enjoy the pastime."

"Cool, so who are we taking on?" She flexed her back, raring to show off.

"I don't know yet. I don't want to put you against anybody ridiculous."

She scowled. "Oh please. A few days of training and you think you know all of my power."

"Huh." I looked around the gym at the few other trainers who were huddled in groups. I spotted a buddy of mine. He wasn't a huge battler, but he knew some serious setups when he cared to use them. "Hey, Jared! Come over here!"

A tall, slim kid with close-cropped black hair turned from one of the groups. He skeptically looked around, and smiled when he saw me waving. He jogged over to us.

"Hey Alan, how's it going, bud." Hey was brushing some crumbs off a slim red t-shirt with stars on it. He must have been snacking before he showed up. "Watcha need?"

"Hey, I'm teaching Thalia here some new battling sets." I gestured to her next to me. "Could you be our sparring partner?"

"Yeah, sure. Anybody specific you want me to use?"

"Nah." I turned around, heading to the opposite side's trainer's platform. "Surprise me."

I took my position on the platform, Jared on his, and another student jumped into the referee's stand. Let the battle between Alan and Jared begin!" he shouted.

I looked down to Thalia. "Alright, you're up. Let's hit it." She jumped down onto the field, taking her stance on one of the elevated platforms.

Jared took out a Pokéball and threw it out on the field. "Alright Ferrum! We've got some work to do!"

Out of the flash of light materialized a Magnezone. It let out a shrill cry when it recognized Jared picked it for battle. It spun it's magnets a couple times. _I guess that's its way of stretching…?_

"OK Thalia. We got this. Listen to me a little it, I'm gonna try and feel out how comfortable you are with being on the field."

She looked back at me with a scowl. "Oh please! I can handle myself, thank you!" She started tensing, waiting to see the Magnezone's first move.

"Great," I muttered to myself, "now she thinks she knows everything about battling."

"Alright, Ferrum, let's start things off!" Jared called, "Give 'em some Metal Sound!"

The Magnezone let loose a horrible screech, like a mix of nails against a chalkboard and metal scraping against metal. I covered my ears, even though it didn't really help. Thalia opened her mouth in a silent scream and cringed.

 _Crap,_ I thought, _looks like Jared has a Specials set up for his magnet. Of course._ I knew enough about Pokémon to know Thalia would have a slight disadvantage with her special defense.

"Alright Thalia, counter with Ice Beam!" I didn't expect her to listen to me, but we had to counter somehow.

It was a good thing my expectations were low, because she didn't shoot a pale blue beam of energy. Instead, three playing cards materialized out of thin air. They spun in a circle, then flew at the Magnezone.

"Woah, Thalia you didn't tell me you knew Trump Card!" She would have had to learn that as an Eevee and kept it until now. "Follow up with Sand Attack, make it lose some accuracy."

Again, she didn't do what I wanted. Instead, she tried landing an Iron Tail. It was powerful, and would have been as effective as an Ice Beam due to typing, but the magnet was quicker. It floated away from Thalia as she swung, and she struck dirt instead.

"Thalia, please listen! I know you think you know something, but I know what I'm doing here. I've had more experience with this stuff than you!"

I couldn't tell if she heard me or not. She didn't acknowledge me. The referee gave me a sheepish glance, and Jared was smirking. I sighed to myself.

Jared made the next move. "Okay, try a Flash Cannon!" Yep, there was his special set at work.

Ferrum aimed a concentrated beam of white energy, and it hit home. It contacted Thalia in the shoulder, and she was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, she couldn't hold her weight on one of her front paws, but she slowly struggled upright. She must have lost another stage of special defense.

"This isn't looking good. Go for another Sand Attack, buy us some time."

This time she listen, and brushed some dirt and grit from the field into the Magnezone's central eye. It squinted and blinked, not able to get it all out. I slightly sent a thank you prayer.

Jared wasted no time for me. "Okay Ferrum, let's wrap this up. Use Rain Dance!" The Pokémon rose its magnets to the sky and started summoning large storm clouds inside the gymnasium.

I couldn't understand why he was using that move. It was a common TM, but I couldn't think of a use for it. It was more than just a simple rain, the clouds were flashing with lightning and pulsing with thunder.

All of a sudden it clicked. He was setting up Thunder. The previous accuracy loss would mean nothing with a guaranteed hit and possible paralysis from the strong electric move. "Quick Glaceon," I called, "I don't care what move you use, but find a way to freeze that thing!"

She turned and looked at me; she must have heard the urgency in my voice. I nodded, and she jumped onto a platform where she had a good angle on her opponent.

"Give her some more Flash Cannons!" Jared commanded. He must have figured out I knew his plan.

"Dodge it Thalia!" I shouted. The Magnezone and she started trading shots, neither of them getting any hits. Finally, Thalia's fourth Ice Beam hit it, and it froze the Pokémon solid. Ferrum hit the ground with a frozen _THUNK_!

"No!" cried Jared. "Get out of it somehow!"

"Alright Thalia," I shouted over the storm, "You've got to trust me on this. It's going to sound weird, but we've got to try. Use Icy Wind, but aim it at the thunderstorm above you!"

She turned around and gave me a skeptical glance. "What the hell is that going to do?" she called. She, too, had to shout to be heard. The winds were blowing her tail and ears to one side.

"Just trust me. You don't know Blizzard yet, so instead we'll create one."

She rolled her eyes, but looked up to the storm and concentrated. The breezes filling the gym turned cold instantly. They blew up to the underside of the storm, and for a couple of minutes, it stopped raining. All the spectators were looking up at the dark rolling clouds. "Keep going Thalia," I shouted, "You'll know when to stop!" The freezing winds kept buffeting us and the storm, until cold chunks of ice started to fall, the winds unable to keep them aloft.

Thalia had made her own version of a hailstorm. Exactly what we needed. She stopped attacking, and seemed to gain strength from being surrounded by her natural element. _Perfect, she has Ice Body._

The hail started to fall and impact everything on the floor. It made splashed in the water, and the student spectators ran for cover. The poor referee was tuck and couldn't leave his stand.

"Okay, let's finish this. Break him out of his ice cage with Iron Tail!"

This time she listened to me. Her tail glowed white, and she leapt at the Magnezone, smashing the ice around it to pieces and sending it flying. It smashed through three big boulders before sliding to a stop. When the dust cleared, it has swirls in its eyes.

The referee, clearly perturbed from being hit by hail, rose his flag. "Magnezone is unable to battle! Alan and Glaceon win!"

I couldn't believe it. There was no way it should have happened. Thalia turned to look at me, and her eyes were huge.

She ran back to my platform. "We did it! We did it we did it we did it! I can't believe it!" She ran circles around me a couple times before jumping in a pool of water. Must be a Pokémon thing.

Jared walked over to me. "Nice job dude! You saw through my Thunder setup! I didn't think anyone would expect Rain Dance on a Magnezone."

"As soon as it clicked, I realized f you managed to paralyze her we'd be screwed. It would only ake one really solid Flash Cannon for it to be over."

"Yeah, well still, awesome job. I have to meet some friends. I'll catch you later."

"Alright Jared, see ya." Thalia came over. I bent down and gave her a scratch behind her ears. "Awesome job Thalia! You've won your first official battle!"

"I know right? It feels so great!" She caught some left over hail and spun it in a circle. "I'm really tired though. Is it okay if we head back to the room?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm a bit tired myself."

Half an hour later, and we were settled down in my dorm. I was in nightclothes, putting a couple additional edits on my club mix for now. Thalia was lounging on her bed, ready for me to turn the lights out.

"So Alan…"

"Yeah?" I answered without turning around.

"How did you know to do that stuff with the storm? That was really something. I would have never thought to use it against Ferrum like that."

"Well, the reason I yelled at you to freeze him was because of the Rain Dance/Thunder combo that is so popular with trainers. It would be 100% accurate, even though you hit it with Sand Attack." I shut down my computer and began to climb up into my bed, hitting the lights on the way over.

"Yeah, but like how did you think to turn the thunderstorm into a hailstorm?"

"Oh, well that's a bit complicated. I used to be obsessed with weather as a kid, so I know a lot about storms. Hail falls when storms have strong upward winds to keep the water droplets up long enough that they freeze into ice. So by using Icy Wind, we forced that to happen. Think of it as a way of creating a blizzard, even though you didn't know the move."

"Okay. Wow, you must be pretty smart to come up with that on your own."

I smiled in the dark. "Yeah, sometimes I get that. Alright, enough battle thinking for one day. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight."

"Yeah, I'm so tired. Goodnight."

 **A/N: That's all for now. Stay tuned for more updates. I can't guarantee a schedule, I'm not going to rush chapters on this, but I will try to work constantly. The storytelling is important for me, so if you're here just for the lemony stuff, you might be waiting a few more chapters. Until next time.**


	3. Meteor Shower

**Glad to see you are all still following! Drop a review if you can, it helps me get better. And lemon people, we're getting closer, but you should probably still take a seat for a couple chapters.**

Thalia nosed her way into my backpack as I packed it. "What are all those things for?"

"In case my bike gets a flat, or one of us gets hurt." I tossed my first aid kit and bike repair kit into my backpack, along with water, a blanket and a couple of snacks. She and I were going to a ridge to watch a meteor shower tonight, as a way to get out of the dorm.

I snuck a glance out the window, and saw clouds covering the sky, just like the rest of the day. _So much for seeing anything tonight_ , I thought. She still insisted that we go, even though the forecast called for rain.

"Okay. I think we've got everything, we better get going before the skies open up." I went outside and unlocked my bike. I was pulling out Thalia's Pokéball, when she jumped up on the rack and stared at me.

"What?"

"Huh-Uh."

"What?!"

"Nope."

"Nope what!?"

"No Pokéball."

I rolled my eyes. "Then how are you getting there? You too big to sit on the handlebars."

"Careful, I'm a lady."

"Oh please. If you take offense to that, then you can walk there."

She nudged me. "I'm kidding. But seriously, I can ride on that little ledge thing you have on your back tire."

"That's for lunches and picnic baskets, not fully grown Pokémon."

"Oh get over yourself. I never really liked my Pokéball anyway."

I got on the bike, ready to ride down the trail. "Come on then. Do whatever you plan on doing."

Her plan was jumping up so that her hind paws were on the ledge and her front paws were wrapped around my neck. We probably looked like a really stupid wannabe biker couple or something.

I rolled my eyes again. I did that a lot with her lately. "Well, just remember if you suffocate me you're going to have a hard landing."

"Yeah I'll try not to," she retorted mischievously.

I started down the path off campus to the ridge. It was about a ten minute ride, nothing ridiculous. Once we were going, Thalia said something behind me, but I couldn't hear it because of the wind from riding.

"You're going to have to speak up, I can't hear you as easily," I shouted to her.

"So what's with all the biking around here? I see bike racks all over the place," she yelled.

"I don't know. It's just an easy method of transport. The college has bike paths all over the place for students. When you have to get to a building further away quickly, sometimes it's better to take your bike rather than wait for a bus."

"Wait, they have buses here?"

"Yeah, they have a set schedule to take students to the bookstore and some outer campus buildings."

She pondered that for a minute. She began to ask another question, but I cut her off.

"The questions about campus can wait. I have to do some off-roading up here, so hold on tighter. Falling off right now would suck, I don't care what you say." She tightened her grip, and we sped into the woods towards the viewing ridge.

* * *

"Can I at least have a snack while we are waiting?" She asked.

"Sure, but I think you're going to be waiting for a while. I know it is supposed to be a full moon, but with all this cloud cover I still think it will be pitch black." I opened my bag and threw her some Ritz crackers. She seemed to find a liking to them over the past couple days. She laid her head on her front paws and nibbled on her crackers.

I stretched my arms over my head and leaned backward to lay on my back. The sky was overcast, with no openings. The sun must have gone down, because it was beginning to get dark.

"Okay, Thalia, I think we're gonna get going. I don't want to be out here past dark in this weather. We're not gonna see anything tonight anyway."

She looked over to me. "Are we gonna come back? I was really excited for this, I've never seen a meteor shower before."

"If tomorrow night is clearer, then yeah, we'll come back tomorrow. I was pretty stoked too, I haven't seen one since I was back home."

"Yeah, home…" she trailed off. I felt bad. She had to have been thinking about Ryan again. From what I had gathered, she had been living with him for years before college. Either she had a thing for him, or she was just really attached to him. It was possible, Pokémon were known to develop strong bonds with their trainers after a while.

"Alright, let's pack up and go back to the dorm. I don't want to stay out any longer than I have to tonight." With that, I packed up my bag, we got back on the bike, and we started through the woods again.

* * *

About halfway back, the rain hit us. It wasn't a downpour, just a light drizzle, so it didn't bother me that much. I could live with a little bit of water. After a couple minutes of biking through it, Thalia's ears perked up. "What's up? See or hear something?"

"Nope. Just thought of something. Wanna see something neat?" She asked.

"Sure. What are you gonna do?"

"Okay, so you're in smart people classes, right?" I nodded. "Well, you'll probably get it then. Check this out."

With that, she closed her eyes and concentrated. I felt an invisible shock wave of cold pulse from her, surrounding us. Almost instantly every raindrop in a five foot radius of us turned into a snowflake, and floated lightly down to the ground. It was like we were in a sphere of winter; whenever a raindrop hit the edge it turned to snow.

I almost crashed because I was lost in the magic of it all. I swerved back onto the trail. "Thalia, that's awesome! I didn't know you could do that."

"Well, believe it or not, Pokémon can do other things than just battle." She nudged my head, mocking the trainer in me.

"Well, joking aside," I said, "this is really cool. So are you pushing the heat energy away, or pulling it in?"

"What do you think? It would be kind of bad if I started storing a bunch of heat all of a sudden. I'm an ice type, remember?"

"Yeah, but still… You never know…." Luckily she was behind me so she couldn't see me flustered.

"Oh come on, don't get flustered."

Shit.

"It's okay to be wrong every once in a while, you know."

"Yeah yeah. It's kinda hard when people hold you up to standards though."

"Well that's fine. I'll just keep thinking you're an idiot then." I shoved her, but not so hard that she fell off.

Suddenly she clung on tighter, using me to support her full weight. The sphere of winter disappeared, so it was all just rain now.

"Hey, are you okay? Don't go passing out on me." I leaned forward so I could support her more comfortably.

"Yeah." Her breathing was more labored than before, but I just noticed it now. "Remember that conversation about energy we just had? Well I'm out of it."

"That's okay. You can go to bed when we make it back. We're almost there. You going to make it?"

"I'll be fine." She basked in the raindrops falling from the sky. "The rain feels really good right now, believe it or not."

"Well, don't get soaked. I don't want my room smelling like wet Glaceon."

"Hey, I don't smell that bad, do I?"

I smiled and didn't answer. I don't care if she's a Pokémon, it's still a trick question coming from a girl. "No comment."

"Hey!"

With that we rode back in the night.

 **Sorry, shorter chapter this time. Stay tuned!**

 **~apk**


	4. Meteor Shower Pt 2

I was fooling around on my computer, wasting time before we headed out to the hill to try and catch the meteor shower again. Tonight was supposed to be clearer, so we hoped for a better show than last night. I was looking for more songs to throw into my mixes, when Thalia came up to nudge my chair.

"What's up?"

"Why are you always working so hard on that stuff? You spend so much time on it."

"Yeah, well, I just want it to be really good, you know. This is my first real gig, and I don't want to make a fool of myself. I'm looking for different songs now."

"Play me something. You keep talking about all this music you have, and you never play me anything."

"Fine, give me a minute. I can't guarantee you'll like much of it though." I began scrolling through my library, looking for something lighter, not to heavy. That's kind of hard to do when most of your music is heavy EDM. Finally I found something.

"Here. Let's try this. Tell me if you want me to turn it off." I hit play, and the track started playing through my speakers.

(Song: Rezonate - Canvas. I suggest looking it up. The lyrics are part of the story.)

 _Tuning out of starlight. The innocent lifetime flickers and flashes onto a canvas, no. And nobody seems worth it. And while the feeling's sophisticated, the view is so restrained. The past is nearing closer and closer I fear…_

The beat picked up. I smiled; this is one of my favorite songs. Thalia went back to her bed and laid down to listen.

 _Realize, the end of us is getting near. You're just a droplet of paint trickling off your canvas._

She let it go on for a while longer.

 _And I don't want to have to give a damn, about you, or your inhibitions. After all, you're the one who told me love was not for everybody._

"Stop. Turn it off." I looked over to her and saw a few tears in her eyes. I clicked it off.

"What's wrong?" I asked concerned.

"It… It just… Reminds me too much of Ryan. How I haven't seen too much of him lately. How I feel like he's abandoned me.…"

"I-I-I'm sorry. I had no idea. Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah. Just give me a couple minutes. Pack your stuff for the meteor shower tonight. It's almost time to go, right?"

"In a little bit. No sense getting there early. We won't miss anything."

* * *

I checked my watch. "Should only be a couple minutes now."

We both scanned the sky for any flashes of light. Finally, out of the corner of my eye, I caught the first streak across the light.

"Here we go! Check it out!"

Instantly, the sky lit up with over a hundred more comets. Some blinked into existence for only a few seconds; others made it from one horizon to the other before disappearing.

"Wow," Thalia breathed in amazement, "this is incredible…."

"I know. Being able to watch a shower like this in a spot this beautiful doesn't happen very often."

We just sat there in silence, watching the natural spectacle put on for us.

Suddenly, one particularly bright meteor appeared. "Hey Thalia, ever wish upon a shooting star before?"

"No, what for?"

"It's just something you do. Go ahead and make a wish on that bright one." She closed her eyes and remained silent, almost like she was saying a prayer more than making a wish. And based on what happened earlier in my room, I had a feeling I knew what it was about.

I left her to herself. I wasn't going to press to know what she wished for. That kind of thing is personal, if she wanted me to know she'd tell me on her own.

I watched the scene a little bit longer before seeing another pretty bright meteor. I thought to myself, _I really hope that Thalia sorts this business with Ryan out. I haven't told her that I've seen him out and at parties, and talked to him in class._

I thought back to when I saw him last week, and was able to confront him about when he wanted Thalia back.

 **[Flashback]**

I approached Ryan as calculus ended, before he could run out the door. "Hey Ryan, you got a minute?"

He turned around, and smiled when he saw me. "Yeah, no problem. What's up dude?"

I looked at him, then away real quick, and sighed. "You ever think about when you want to take Thalia back?"

He frowned. "Why, is she causing too much trouble for you?"

"No, she's been great so far. I just figured you'd want her back sooner or later. It's been a couple weeks now."

Ryan looked away, as if staring out in space. "Yeah, you know what, I don't know yet. I've been able to bring my grades up to where I want them, and I've been really stress-free lately." He paused for a moment. "To be honest with you, I don't know if I'm going to want her back. I was thinking about leaving her with you."

Inside, my heart dropped. I knew what would happen if she found out he said that. "Well… I mean she is yours. I think she was under the impression that she was going to go back to you at some point."

"How would she know? She's just a Pokémon." That pissed me off. I instantly wanted to whack him. "As long as you're okay with it, I was just going to let you keep her. You seem to be handling her pretty well. I heard about that battle you two won in the gym the other week, by the way."

I had to take a deep breath not to verbally smack him right there. "Yeah, I just figured it was something for us to do. No big deal." He didn't respond, just kept that stupid ass smirk on his face. "Well, just think about it a little more. I don't have a direct issue with it, but I really didn't think I was going to end up with a Pokémon in my dorm."

"Yeah, alright man, whatever. I get you. I gotta go, I'll catch you later." He gave me a fist bump, and with that he was gone. I just stood there and facepalmed.

 **[End Flashback]**

The way I saw it, the longer she stayed with me now, the more likely that stay would be permanent. And I wasn't lying to Ryan when I said I didn't have a problem with it. I was actually starting to enjoy having her company. Sure, it was a little more work, but we had some fun together, too.

I snapped out of staring off into space (pun totally intended), and looked down at her. She had opened her eyes, and was watching the end of the light show above us. I could see the reflections of the shooting stars in her dark blue eyes. I sighed again. I didn't plan on telling her about my talk with Ryan. At least not yet. I just wanted her to be happy….

I laid down on my back, taking in the full view of the sky above me. Our problems seemed so much smaller when you look up at the night sky.

We sat there together on that hill in silence until the meteor shower was over that night. And with that, we rode back to the dorms.

 **A/N: Oh boy. Yeah, surprise, I'm not dead! Sorry for taking forever and a half to upload another chapter. College has been hectic. It's hella fun, but also hella busy, leaving me absolutely no time to write. So with the holidays over and all that, I decided to get a new chapter up. Consider it my late Christmas gift to you, my readers, for putting up with my procrastination of writing another one. I'm grateful for how much support I've gotten, and everybody who is following. I definitely plan on getting another chapter or two out before I go back to school for spring. And I can promise that these will be some beefy, plot-critical chapters for the story. So keep an eye out for those when they drop! As always, feel free to follow, favorite and review the story, or just PM me if you want to talk. And Happy New Year to all of you! Until next time….**


	5. Close Call

**A/N: Again, there will be a couple songs in this chapter. I highly recommend searching them on YouTube in a separate tab, and playing them when they take place in the story. Enhances the experience, ya know?**

"Alright Thalia, now when you freeze these I want you to use quick attack to get underneath them, then jump and use Iron Tail. I want small pieces of orange, got it?"

We were at the gym trying out some new move combinations. It was good to get out of the dorm for a while, and it was good exercise for her. It almost kept her mind off of you-know-who.

I threw up one of the clay pigeons I was holding, and as it reached the top of its arc, Thalia blasted it with Ice Beam. She then had to dash quickly to get from her side of the gym to mine, then jumped up and met the falling disc to smash it with Iron Tail. Fluorescent orange pieces of pigeon flew everywhere, sparkling from the ice prison it was in moments earlier.

"Hey nice job!" I congratulated her as she landed. "That looked pretty sweet, too."

"Don't think about it," she said in between breaths, "you'll never convince me to enter a contest. Ever."

"Oh come on! It was a joke!" I called after her as she went back to her position across the gym floor. I had been teasing her lately about becoming a contest Pokémon, even though I knew she'd never bother. She was nowhere near girly enough for that fancy crap.

"Alright, get ready. Two more comin' at ya!" I threw up two more, spaced a bit apart this time. They both met an ice-cold energy beam and a solid steel tail shortly thereafter.

"Hmm," I thought. Let's just see how far we can go with this.

Without giving her time to get back to her spot, I threw up two more. It took her by surprise, but she adjusted fast. As she whacked the second one, I threw a third, making her react quicker. She used Ice Beam as soon as she landed, then jumped quickly again to meet it with a barely-charged Iron Tail.

With only a few seconds for a breather, I threw my last pigeons. All five at once, one after the other in a line. She froze all of them, but was only able to get the first three with one strike of Iron Tail before falling out of the air, the last two orange discs sailing over her head.

She looked back at me, a playfully angry glare in her eyes. "Hey! Not fair!"

"Your opponents won't always be fair. But that was really good reaction time though!"

"Humph," she responded. I looked at her, then at the two frozen clay pigeons laying on the ground, then back to her. "What?" she said.

"You know what. Don't leave your work unfinished." I had been imposing that rule as of late, too.

"Oh yeah?" She ran over and flung the two discs at me, looking to catch me off guard.

I stopped both with my feet, my old soccer experience coming in handy. "You'll have to be quicker than that. Here." I threw one up, and she hit it with a solid tail of iron.

"Use your surroundings for this one." I threw it higher than she'd be able to jump, but close to the wall. She saw it, looked around, and acted. Thalia jumped from the ground, bounced off a boulder, kicked off the wall, and smashed the last frozen disc.

She walked back over, looking proud of that last feat. I held out my hand for a high five. "Now that," referring to her little stunt, "was some hardcore parkour."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Shut up. You're such a nerd."

"Yeah and don't you forget it," I said, laughing at my own joke. I put away the last of our training supplies and we began to walk back to my room.

We were silent for a while, then Thalia spoke up. "Okay, question for you."

"Okay. Yes, you may have a poffin, because that was a good workout."

"Not my question. You have Skype, right?"

"Yep."

"Okay. Then can you do me a favor?"

"Maybe. Depends. If you try to start a webcam in my dorm room, then that ain't happening."

She playfully shoved me, and I had to catch myself on the wall. "Hey come on! This is serious!"

"Okay fine! Sorry. What it is?"

"Can you Skype Ryan for me?" Oh boy. Here we go. "I want you to ask him when he plans on taking me back. Nothing against you, but I want to see him."

Shit. I'd have to be careful about this one. "Uh…Yeah, I can do that. I need to get his Skype address from him, but I'll text him when we get back and I'll try him tonight. Sound good?"

"Yeah! Thanks!" She had a bit more spring in her step after that. "Oh, and I still want that poffin, by the way." My turn to shove her.

' _Well…. Crap,'_ I thought. This will be difficult. I kind of knew what the outcome of this was going to be, but I promised her I'd do this, and I am true to my word. Hopefully Ryan doesn't say anything stupid, for both our sakes. That is, if he's not out partying and actually answers the call. We made it back to the dorm, and the first thing I did was put on some music. I wasn't feeling EDM today. " _Sleeping with Sirens_ it is, then," I said to myself.

[LINE BREAK]

"Okay, okay, relax!" Thalia was practically pushing me out of my chair because I was fooling around with playlists instead of on Skype. "He has to be online first, anyway."

"Well? And is he?"

"No. But I told him eight o'clock. It's seven fifty. So go and sit on my bed or something."

She jumped over to the futon, flopped down, and looked at me. "Happy?"

"Yes," I answered, adjusting my webcam. I always hated how I looked on webcams. I don't know if it was my room's lighting, or what, but I always looked sloppy. Whatever.

A few minutes of messing around later, and Ryan's name popped up on the screen. I could practically hear Thalia's ears perk up. I sent in the call request.

A minute of ringing later, he picked up. He was lounging in his chair, hair all messed up. I didn't want to know.

I took a drink from a glass of water I had next to me. "What's up Ryan? How's it going?"

"I'm good man."

"I'm surprised you aren't out tonight."

"Yeah, I think tonight's a chill night. Watch some hockey or something. You wanted to talk about Thalia, right?"

"Uh-huh. Have you thought about taking her back?"

He nodded. A good sign. "Yeah, a little bit. Just curious, what did your RA say about having her in the room?"

Weird question. "Uh, he didn't have an issue. He's pretty chill about most things."

"Oh, that's good I guess."

Suddenly, a female voice broke in from the background. "Ryan, sweetie, who are you talking to?"

"Uhh…" he stuttered. "Nobody, babe. Just had to take a quick call. Be back in a minute," Ryan answered.

I raised my eyebrows at him. "And that was?"

"Um. Don't worry about it. Let's just say that with my free time without Thalia, I've been seeing someone. That's all you need to know." He gave me one of those 'we'll-talk-about-this-later-if-you really-wanna-know' kind of looks. _'Well. Shit.'_

"Who's Thalia?" That voice again. I tried to recognize it, but I was drawing a blank.

Ryan turned around. "No one you need to worry about. Forget about it." He faced his camera again. "Look, Alan, I have to go. Call it 'business' if you want. The thing about Thalia, I want you to keep her. You guys seem like a good pair. I'm sure she probably hasn't missed me that much. If so, ah…oh well? I have more…pertinent matters to attend to at the moment. If you need any official signature from me or something, I'll get it to you next week. But consider her yours. Hope that's not an issue for you."

I was silent for a second. I had to snap myself out of it to respond. "Huh…? Oh, y-yeah! It's- It's not an issue. It's fine, really."

He smiled. "Hey, thanks for it, man. I need to go. Have a good weekend, dude. Peace!"

"Yeah, y-you to…. Dude…." And with that, his screen cut to black….

I was scared to turn around, but forced myself to spin around in my chair and face her.

It was pretty bad.

Thalia was stunned. Like someone just smacked her right into next week. Her bottom jaw was practically on the floor, and although she was technically still looking at my screen, I could tell she was spaced way out. She must have been standing just out of my camera's field of view, watching the whole thing. I'm sure she heard the whole conversation. As I looked at her, a single tear fell down the side of her face.

What happened next occurred in the blink of an eye.

She suddenly snapped out of her trance-like state, and glanced at the window. Before I could react, she bolted and jumped straight out the open window, taking off into the night. _'Well. Double shit.'_

I had been leaving the window open as of late, even though it was winter, because it cooled the room down a bit. It made Thalia more comfortable, and I was okay with it. Key word 'was.'

Without evening thinking, I got up from my chair, threw on a light jacket, and was out my door. I didn't even lock my room. I raced from the dorm's front door, nearly taking out a couple of students coming back from night classes. I didn't stop to apologize, either. Whoops.

I ran around the building to where my window was, and dashed after the footprints in the snow. It's a good thing I could run fast.

Finally, my brain started functioning again. Unfortunately, it was because I realized where the footprints were leading.

One of the nice things about my college's campus was that it had enough of a buffer to feel as if it was more rural, when it turns out we were smack in the middle of the suburbs. Another nice thing was that it wasn't hard to get anywhere from school, because the major road was just a two minute drive away from the student parking lot. It was basically a highway you could use to get almost anywhere quickly, when there wasn't trailer truck traffic.

If it was any other moment, it would have been nice. What I quickly came to realize, was that – in this particular moment – the fact that the road was a five minute dash away from my window was anything but nice.

Now don't get me wrong, Thalia was pretty strong for a Pokémon of her size. However, when taking on a semi-truck, I'm pretty sure that the truck is going to win. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, I'm betting on the truck.

So far, tonight had not been a one-in-a-hundred night.

I ran on, following her paw prints through the woods, jumping over bushes, through brambles. Finally, I broke through the brush cover to the side of the main road. The scene was like something I never want to see ever again.

It was like the scene of a movie: she was standing in the middle of the oncoming lane of traffic, staring down the road. All was quiet, deserted, until a pair of headlights appeared down the road. As the vehicle approached I would see it was a semi, making a late-night run through the area. Thalia saw it, too. She stood, paws apart, in the stance of a Pokémon ready to battle an opponent. Except she closed her eyes, and braced herself.

I could see from my side of the road that the truck driver was on the phone, like so many other motorists these days. He wasn't watching the road as intently as he should have been. One bump would just be an afterthought.

I forced my body to move. It wasn't a smart move, but I moved. I wouldn't let her go down like this. I've never ran across four lanes of traffic so fast in my life.

The rest was a blur. The white and yellow road lines, vaulting over the central median, the truck fast approaching, it was all just a blur.

I dove. Tackled her. Rolled out of the way, I hoped. Felt the strongest, most vivid whoosh of air I've ever felt in my life.

What I didn't feel was the sudden impact of the truck's front bumper.

I ended up on my back, clutching Thalia in my arms on top of me. It was clumsy as hell, but she was…well, she wasn't a hood ornament.

We were both breathing heavily from the running. Tears were pouring down her face. She was sobbing softly.

"Never. Ever. Scare me like that again," I whispered to her. She didn't respond; she just kept sobbing. And that was okay. Sometimes, you just need to let it out. It happens to everyone.

I slowly stood up, carrying her in my arms. It was going to be a long, cold walk back to my room. Normally it wouldn't be bad, but that's when I'm not carrying a fifty pound Glaceon.

Thalia gradually shifted so that her head was resting against my chest. She was still crying, but I wasn't going to stop her.

Eventually, she stopped sobbing. And about halfway back, she spoke.

She looked up at me. "Hey."

I smiled. It wasn't much, but I'll take it. "Hey."

"Sing to me."

"Sing to you?"

"Yeah. I hear you sing in the shower every once in a while, and you're pretty good sometimes. Sing me something."

Welp. Busted. Oh well, it didn't bother me. "What do you want me to sing you?"

"I don't care. You always seem to have the perfect song for the moment. So you pick."

Our voices were quiet compared to the vast night surrounding us. The streetlights barely kept the sidewalk lit between them.

 **[SONG TIME! Search: Tristam – My Friend]**

I mentally chose a song, letting the beginning buildup echo in my head. The drums, the chords – it all felt right. And in the silence of the night, I sang to her.

" _In the wind I hear my name, with the ones starting the games.  
Call me now, 'cause I can barely breathe."_

I paused, going with the tempo, the flow of the song. My mind was a record player, repeating a song I had sang so many times before when no one was around.

" _I can hear them chanting lively, I can feel that music in me;  
We were born in trust to believe."_

Here the instrumental drop happened. Not wanting to lose the emotion of the song, nor skip to the next part with words, I softly hummed the melody as we continued back to campus.

" _And when it's all over, we can be together, venture to the world inside.  
I can see in deeper, I can see in clearer, I'll never be afraid to die again.  
I'll always be there for you, my friend."_

" _And after all that we've been through, will this light lead me to you?  
I can't stay here one more day, I swear to you, I'm not afraid.  
Through the wind chimes, through the bells, I would carry you through hell."_

We were almost home. I wasn't completely sure, but I think she was beginning to tear up again.

" _In the wind I hear my name, with the ones starting the games.  
Call me now, 'cause I can barely breathe.  
I can feel you chanting lively, I can feel that music in me;  
We were born in trust to believe."_

I was humming the ending instrumental as we walked through the hall to my room. I finished the song just as we got back. Entering the room, I set Thalia down on her bed. The next thing I did was close and lock the window. I didn't need any late night chases. I was feeling pretty tired myself.

"Hey, I think I'm going to turn in early tonight. I'm taking a shower then hitting the bed."

I saw her nod faintly. Then, I had another idea. I walked over to mission control and booted up my computer.

Scrolling through my library of songs, I found something else I wanted her to listen to as I was in the bathroom. I warmed up my speakers, keeping the power low. This wasn't a club song.

"I'm playing you one last thing tonight. Something that you might like. You can ignore it if you want to."

As the beginning strings came in, I shut the door to the bathroom and took my shower, cleaning up before bed. Normally I'd take morning showers, but I basically just raced a Glaceon half a mile. So it was necessary.

 **[SONG: Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori – Never Forget. I highly suggest listening to this all the way through before continuing]**

Coming out from the bathroom, the song had ended long ago, and she was asleep. That was good, at least.

I changed, shut down my computer, and hit off the light. I looked at my bed, lofted up high, and chose to stay on the ground tonight. I grabbed a blanket and curled up on the futon.

I was just falling asleep when I felt something nudge me. I opened my eyes to see Thalia with her front paws shoving me.

"What's wrong, Thalia?" I asked, half asleep already.

"N-N-Nothing. It's just…. Do you mind if I sleep up with you tonight?"

I smiled again. "No, it's fine. Come on up." I shifted over to give her some room.

She just tried to curl up right on the edge, on top of everything. She sighed.

"No. Come here." I lifted up the covers, pulling her in with me, wrapping her in a loose embrace. I figured she probably needed it.

"What was that song that you played before?" she asked, "It was beautiful…."

I managed another smile. Weird, considering the night's events. "That song was from a game soundtrack from years ago. It's called Never Forget."

"Never Forget…." She echoed.

I gave her a hug. Whispering in her ear, I told her, "Never forget, Thalia. Never forget, that someone will always love you. Someone will always want you around. It might not always be me, I might have to go some day. But someone, somewhere, will always love you."

She began to sob softly. I stroked her head tassels, something I had found calmed her down. I probably just made her start crying again, but I knew she needed to hear it.

We both fell asleep shortly after.

[PAGE BREAK]

When I woke up, I was staring a Glaceon in the face.

Somehow or another Thalia and I must have become entangled during the night, because I had my arms wrapped tightly around her, and her front paws were wrapped around my neck, and back paws around my waist.

As flattered as I was that she enjoyed my presence, I had to get up for the day. The work of a college student never ends.

Fortunately, as I shifted to try to get up without disturbing her too much, she also rolled to the opposite side of the bed, effectively untangling us. She gave a cute little yawn as she stretched. I got myself up and went into the bathroom to clean up for the day.

As I was changing, I noticed a wet spot on my sleeping pants. _'I didn't have a wet dream, did I?'_ I thought to myself. I hadn't had one for years. Thinking back to it, the only dream I remember from last night was Thalia and I playing with a Frisbee in a field. _'That's weird. And kinda embarrassing. I hope she didn't notice anything.'_

She began to groom herself as I started breakfast. "So what's the plan for today?" she asked between mouthfuls of fur.

I turned, smirking. "Must I entertain you constantly?"

"Yes. You do." She turned and picked something up off my desk with her mouth, and threw it at me. It barely knocked me off guard as I warmed up the toaster, and I caught it with one hand.

"An EXPO marker? Really?" I threw it back on my desk, and it rolled into the endless pile of stuff on the corner. "Maybe we'll go to the gym later today. Work on some battle combos."

"Ok. As long as you don't drag your feet or take a three hour nap again, lazy bum."

I faked looking hurt. "I'm in college. I'm allowed to be a lazy bum if I want. Stop talking like my mom, it's scary." At least she seemed in a better mood this morning.

She laughed, and we shared some Pop Tarts for breakfast.

 **A/N: So, finally had a good one for you guys! Hope you enjoyed it. I'm still working out where I want this to be going, in terms of branching the next two big plot elements together (this chapter and the next big one). It's looking like this will be the last update before I go back to school, and I know better than to try and make promises on writing anything until my next break. So you might be waiting on the next chapter though. In the meantime, check out some of my other stories if you like this one!**

 **Hopefully you enjoyed the song selection in this chapter. These are some of my favorites when it comes to emotional, hard-hitting-in-the-feels type of music. Favorite, follow, hell leave a review if you have the time. Send me a PM if you feel like it. I can respond to those much quicker than writing a chapter. Until next time, peace.**


	6. Gym Day

**A/N: Oh boy, look, I wrote something! Yaaaaaaay! Also I just realized looking over the previous chapter that I forgot to put the line breaks in. Whoops. Anyway, enjoy!**

 _Thalia POV:_

I woke up staring him in the face. How that happened, who knows?

I must've woken up before Alan, as he was still breathing deeply, and hadn't budged. We were wrapped in an embrace, which was…oddly comforting. I was torn between wanting to move and get started with the day, and just lying there, together. He made my decision for me.

With a subtle shift I realized he had awoken, even if his eyes weren't open yet. With a roll that might as well have been synchronized, we separated, rolling to opposite sides of the bed. I yawned, and he got up to begin his wake up routine.

As I began to clean myself, I realized that my dream last night might have left more of a remnant than I thought. Alan and I were playing in a field together, and things gradually got more…intimate. _'I hope he didn't notice anything. That's embarrassing….'_

"So, what's the plan for today?" I asked as he walked back out of the bathroom.

He turned, with that cute, yet annoying smirk he often wears. "Must I entertain you constantly?"

"Yes. You do." I grabbed a marker off his desk in my mouth and tossed it at him.

He caught it in one hand, his attention still on getting out the toaster and Pop Tarts. "An EXPO marker? Really?" He tossed it back on his desk. "Maybe we'll go to the gym later today. Work on some battle combos."

"Ok! As long as you don't drag your feet or take a three hour nap again, lazy bum."

He faked being hurt, as if a jab like that could affect him. "I'm in college. I'm allowed to be a lazy bum if I want. Stop talking like my mom, it's scary." I laughed at that, and walked over to steal one of his Pop Tarts.

* * *

 _Alan POV:_

"Anything specific you feel like working on today?" I asked her as we walked to the training gym.

"I don't know. It be cool to some agility stuff if they have some things set up for it," she said thoughtfully.

"Well, you never know. It's a Saturday, too, so there might be some other trainers hanging around we can battle, if you're up for it." As we approached the door, I noticed a bunch of flyers hanging on the windows.

"Huh? What's this?" I pulled one off the door and inspected it.

"Oooh. Let me see!" Thalia stood up on her hind legs to get a look.

"Can you even read?" I asked, joking.

"Yes I can, thank you very much!"

"Hmm…." It had something about some ninja training exercises. An American Ninja Warrior type of thing on a small scale. For both humans and Pokémon.

"Well?"

"It looks like your wish was granted. They have some sort of parkour-agility thing set up on half of the gym today. Wanna check it out?"

"Of course I do!" she answered, bursting through the doors. I followed her in.

On the inside was a large set up of platforms and walls, with an uppermost platform and a bell sitting on it. There were two sides, one clearly designed for Pokémon, and the other with more human-sized obstacles.

"This is so cool!" Thalia exclaimed.

"Hell yeah it is!" I responded.

"Hey are you guys here for the agility training?" A guy a couple years older than me and about my size walked over to us as we were examining the course. He had messy black hair, and wore gym shorts and a tank top, with fingerless gloves on his hands.

"Yeah, looks pretty neat, I had no idea this was set up today."

"We were a bit late getting the notice out there. Hasn't been much action today unfortunately," he said rubbing his head. "You two want to give it a shot?"

"Sure. Any rules or stuff we should know."

"Not really. There is a water pool below most of the course. You fall, you'll land in that. The farthest drop isn't bad enough to hurt you," he gestured to the course, "oh, my name's Paul by the way." He held out his hand.

I grabbed it and shook it. "Alan-

"-and Thalia-" she piped in. Not that he would be able to hear her without an earpiece.

"Nice to meet you." I finished.

"Likewise. Go ahead over and start whenever. Just give me a shout when you start, so I know when you're going. And ring the bell at the top if you get there, it's harder than it looks."

"Alright, thanks. I'll be sure to give you a yell. Let's go check it out Thalia!" We ran over to inspect the course closer before starting.

"How about that, we got some pretty good agility setups here today!" I commented when we got over.

"I know! And all by chance too! Woah, check it out…." Her gaze drifted to the obstacles in front of her.

Both sides of the courses began in the same way. Five platforms, on alternating opposite sides of a pool, ending in a final platform to land on. The platforms were angled in such a way that it would take a great amount of care to stand on any one platform without falling off. Beyond this the sides differed, suited more for human or Pokémon, depending on the path.

"Hey Paul, you care if I guide her through?" I yelled over my shoulder.

"Nah, you do you man. It's here for fun, this ain't a competition like you see in the TV shows."

"Alright Thalia. If you're okay with it, I'll guide you."

She nodded. "Okay, where do I start?"

"Well, you can either take each platform one at a time and gain your footing, or you can take it all at once, and jump from side to side. Your choice."

"Hmph." She took one look at the obstacle, then bounded across the platforms.

"Well then."

She continued through, bounding over and under walls, jumping off another to a platform behind her, gradually making her way up to the top. She was almost at the bell, when she came across a long ramp with a hill in the middle. There was a large gap between the far end of the ramp.

She stopped, puzzled. "Wait so what do I do here?"

"Well, build up speed, then jump." I looked at it closer. I had a feeling there would be a Pokemon-related trick to this one. "You might have to-"

Before I could finish, she ran, down the first hill and up the second, the down again to the edge. When she reached it she leapt towards the bell, got about halfway, then fell down. I heard a _SPLASH_ below.

"-use a move." I finished.

She climbed out of the pool and shook herself. "Ugh."

"Well, when you get up there, don't go right away," I said.

"Shut up." In a minute she was back up there.

"Okay, this time, freeze the ramp with ice beam and slide after pushing off. It'll give you more speed."

She did as I instructed. With a starting push off, she slid down the ramp with all her speed, got some hang time off the first hump, missed the second section completely, and landed in the water again.

She made sure to walk over to me before shaking herself off, rightfully dousing me with water. "What's the plan this time, genius?"

"I'll have one by the time you get back up."

The ramp was still frozen, so we had that going for us. "Ok, this time don't push off with all of your speed. Give just enough to get over that first hill, then use quick attack on the way down. Aim for the pole holding up the bell."

She took a deep breath, and went for it. It looked choreographed. She slid down, up, down and over the gap, grabbing the pole with her front paws and spinning around it, ringing the bell with her teeth proudly.

"Ayy! There you go!" I cheered from down below.

"Alright, let's see you get up here!" She teased from above.

I shrugged. "Ok."

I ran over to my side, taking the five steps in stride. I kept running at the platform, kicking off a wall onto a higher ledge. Jump, swing off a bar, grab and climb a rope, and I was almost there. The last obstacle was like the first, except instead of angled platforms, they were three vertical walls.

"You're getting wet," she called, referring to the water below.

"Smartass," I smiled, and jumped. Grabbed one ledge, turned around, kicked off to the other, then the last. One last jump to the bell, and I was sitting beside her.

"I'm so tempted to push you into the pool," I told her.

"You won't do it," she replied.

I shoved her closer to the edge. "Nononononono-. " She scrabbled back against me until I stopped.

"Good job. That was a good workout." I gave her a high-five (paw-five?).

"Thanks," she replied, still catching her breath.

We heard slow clapping from down on the gym floor. "Not bad, guys," Paul called out.

I rolled over, hung off the bell's ledge, and dropped down to the floor onto a mat placed there to soften the landing. I lost my balance at the last second and landed on my torso. _THUMP_. Followed by a Glaceon landing on top of me. "Thanks."

"Anytime," she smiled back.

[Background music: Pylot – A Race Against Time. Youtube it, start at around 1 minute]

"Yo, you guys have time for a battle before you leave?" Paul asked me.

"Thalia?" I asked.

"Hell yeah!" she exclaimed.

"That's a yes from the boss. Let's do it!" We ran over to the battle arena side.

"Do your best, Thalia!" I called.

"Show em' what you got Spike!" Paul called as he released a Nidoking onto the battlefield.

"Start off with an Ice Beam." She shot a frozen stream of energy at her opponent. The Nidoking took the attack head on and barely flinched. "Damn, should've been doubly effective too. It's got some resilience to it."

"Alright Spike, use Earth Power!"

Multiple holes appeared in the ground, with jets of flame erupting moments later.

"Do what you have to dodge it," I called back.

Thalia used her speed to stay ahead of the pits. "Change it into quick attack and ram it!" She changed her trajectory and hit the Nidoking with all her might in its chest, forcing it to take a few staggering steps back.

"You're making progress! Don't let up!" She ran a few more circles then body slammed again.

Thalia made one more rotation, but just before she made contact, Paul yelled "Double Kick, go!"

Spike stomped twice, then timed a perfect one-two kick, connecting with Thalia and sending her flying back into a rock. When the dust cleared, she stood up shakily, and shivered as if she caught a chill.

"Shit, Thalia, you're probably poisoned. I bet it's got Poison Point. We gotta end this quick. Freeze the ground around it, then use Icy Wind low to the ground."

She followed the orders, first turning the nearby ground into an ice rink, then lowering the visibility and the Nidoking's speed on the field. I could hear the Nidoking growling, confused.

"I can't see either, pal. Just hold on!" Paul shouted from the far end.

"Get in front of a rock, then line up a quick attack! Be ready for my call, though!"

"As soon as you see it, hit it with Megahorn!"

I saw a streak of white through the mist, approaching a charging, glowing white horn. As they closed in, I yelled, "Dodge the thing, dig in and turn around, and hit it into the rocks! Use the Earth Power holes if you need to!"

I saw the streak miss the collision with the horn, then stop and change directions. I heard the scraping of claws on ice, probably the Nidoking trying to move, but the coating of ice wasn't having it. The streak collided, sending the Nidoking into the rocks, creating a large dust cloud. When it cleared, the Nidoking was lying on its back, knocked out.

Paul recalled it. "Nice job man. You could probably see I'm not much of a battler."

I fist-bumped him. "Nah its cool man. That's why we're in a training gym." I looked at my watch, "Wanna join us for lunch? I gotta get an Antidote for Thalia anyway."

"Yes, food please!" Thalia chipped in.

"Sure. Let's hit it."

Thalia jumped on my back, and we headed off for the food courts.

 **A/N: OOOOOOOHHHHH BOY! We did one! *applause* Sorry this chapter was a bit lackluster. I'm on Spring Break and was able to write for a couple nights, but until now I haven't had too much time to think about the story. I have a much meatier chapter planned for the next update, although I can't promise a date for that yet. But know I'm still alive! Thanks for reading!**


	7. You Don't Have Any Plans, Do You?

**A/N: Just a heads up, there is some citrusy stuff coming up at the end of the chapter (You know what I mean). For all those anti-saucy people, you'll know, I'll give a warning.**

I was getting back to my room after my last Friday afternoon class. I unlocked and opened the door to see Thalia napping on the futon. I dumped my backpack on the floor by the space station and laid down next to her. The movement woke her up.

She perked her ears up. "Hey, what's up?"

"You didn't happen to have any plans for tonight, did you?" I asked.

"Well since I'm a little bit limited without you being here, no, why?"

"You remember Paul from the gym?" She looked up, recalling him.

"Yeah, he's the guy from the agility thing last weekend, right? What about him?"

"Yeah, you got it. I saw him on my way back today, and he asked if I wanted to join him for a Team Doubles challenge tonight. It's a cool little thing the school puts on to coincide with the Olympics this year. It was this weeklong thing and the finals were tonight, but his partner got sick and can't make it, so he offered me and you the spot."

"Wait, seriously? I thought he was average with battling."

"Yeah, his partner is a buddy of his that I recognize. Name is Derek, and he's actually pretty good at doubles. I think he came in second place in a tournament they had here in the summer. Anyway, Paul asked specifically if you and I would be willing to take Derek's place."

She got up and stretched. "Of course. Haven't had a good battle all week."

"Cool, I'll let him know," I said, pulling out my phone. I was texting him Thalia's answer when she crawled over my left arm and settled on my chest.

"Excuse me Miss, may I help you?" I whispered.

Eyes closed, she responded, "No, just taking the most of the opportunity. I missed you while you were gone."

"Oh, my bad. I'll skip all my classes on Monday and just stay here all day," I said.

She ignored my sarcasm and nuzzled in closer. "I'd be okay with that."

I rolled my eyes. She'd been getting a lot more touchy-feely the last week or so. It didn't really bother me much, but it was just such a drastic change from how she was when she first stayed with me. It was kind of nice. I wrapped my arms around her in an embrace and she sighed.

We stayed like that for a couple seconds, when I sat up. Thalia grumbled as she fell off me and onto the futon.

"Well it's either this, or neither of us will have food tonight before the battle."

"Humph. Less okay with that."

I laughed. "Yeah, I thought so."

* * *

We were walking to the outdoor arena on the other side of campus. It was set up similar to the indoor gym, with a rocky battlefield, some raised platforms, and a couple small pools. It was off-limits most of the time because of the difficulty of upkeep, but was used for special events like this. It had a little bit of stadium seating, too, and was about half-full when Thalia and I walked through the gate.

We registered with the refs, and I saw Paul walking over to us from one of the front rows. He was wearing a blue tracksuit with black stripes on the legs and arms. I heard Thalia whisper "I swear, it's like he lives in a gym," and I chuckled.

I shook his hand when he got us. "Hey, really glad you could do this for me," he said. "Derek got the flu sometime earlier this week and has been feeling like shit all day."

"Hey no problem, man. Glad we could help. Is he here?" I asked.

"Yeah, he said he'll try and make it closer to the starting time. We've got about fifteen minutes, if you guys want to warm up," he offered.

"Ok cool. We're both excited for this!" I stated, with Thalia nodding in agreement.

"Good! Our opponents are supposedly some top-notch trainers from the city college, so it won't be an easy battle," he said, sounding concerned.

"Cheer up, man," I said, nudging him with my elbow, "we won't know till we're there."

Fifteen minutes later, the refs motioned for us to take our places. The arena had filled up almost to max capacity, with a couple groups of trainers cheering for each school, and some other public groups here for a good battle.

The stadium announcer started with the usual opening ceremony stuff, the national anthem, followed by both school's alma maters. He then introduced the battlers.

"Welcome to the Fall Doubles Tournament Single Elimination Finals match! Tonight we have Violet and Marcus on the red side, versus Paul and pinch substitute Alan on the blue side!" Cheers sounded for both of the teams as they were introduced. "Trainers, are you ready?"

All four of us nodded at the ref, and he called out "Begin!"

(Song time: Virtual Riot & ShockOne - Showdown)

"Alright Vileplume, go get 'em!" Paul called out, sending the huge flower Pokémon out onto the field.

"You ready Thalia?"

"Hell yeah, I am!" She called, running out to take a stance next to Paul's Pokémon.

"That's what I like to hear! Let's do it!" I responded, echoing her enthusiasm.

Across the field, our rivals sent out a Gliscor and Gigalith.

"Alright Thalia, check your types here!" I yelled over the crowd. "You've got times four on that Gliscor, but that Gigalith will mess you up if you get too close!"

Paul looked at me. "You do know that they're going to have their weaknesses covered, right?"

"Oh yeah. Thalia knows that too, I just need to remind her to stay focused. She gets headstrong sometimes. And there aren't second chances here."

"Okay man. Just checking."

Our opponents made the first move while we hesitated.

"Gliscor, Aerial Ace that VIleplume, now!" Our one opponent yelled.

"Gigalith, get Stealth Rock going." The other followed.

I reacted quickly. "Thalia, throw up a wall of ice in front of your partner, quick!" She did as I instructed, and the Gliscor veered away from Vileplume before its attack could connect. Nothing I could do about the rocks though, and several large stones rose from the ground and floated around the edge of the arena.

I looked at Paul. "Okay, so that Gigalith is gonna try and stall. Hard. I need you to do something about it."

He nodded. "Gotcha. Vileplume, start off with a Seed Bomb."

"Gigalith, protect." Alright. So it's going to be that kind of battle.

"Thalia, let's do something about that Gliscor. Give it a couple Ice Beams!" I called to her.

Unfortunately, the Gliscor was too fast. It dodged everything.

"Damn, okay Thalia, new plan. Get ready for some running."

Meanwhile, Paul was dealing with the hunk of rock. "Vileplume, try a Sludge Bomb."

"Gliscor, help Giga out." The Gliscor dove in front of the rock-type, taking the poison attack. Paul waited, probably hoping for poison, but it showed no signs of affliction to the flying scorpion.

That was when the opposing team did something odd. "Gigalith, use Toxic." Paul and I tensed, but instead of sending it at our Pokemon, the Gigalith used it on its teammate. The Gliscor showed signs of poisoning, but it didn't falter.

"What the hell?" Paul shouted. He looked at me. "What kind of strategy is that?"

"I don't know man, but it looks real sketch. Stay on your toes."

The Gliscor started up some more Aerial Aces again, targeting Vileplume. After a successful hit, Paul called for a Giga Drain. His grass-type gained some health back on the close-range attack, but the scorpion again showed no signs of fatigue. I decided to do something about it.

"Thalia, use your speed and Quick Attack in close." Thalia dashed after the Gliscor, chasing it around the arena, but it kept ahead of her. It was just too fast.

Suddenly, it turned on her after a turn around a boulder. "Now! Façade!" its trainer yelled.

Thalia never saw it coming. She ran around the boulder straight into a glowing claw, and the poison it had only made it stronger. Thalia went crashing back into another boulder behind me, and it exploded in a cloud of dust.

"Thalia! Are you ok?" I shouted. This fight would be over fast if it was just left to Paul's 'Plume. Thankfully, I saw her shadow stand up as the smoke cleared.

I checked the opponent's side again, and of course, the Gliscor was just floating, with the Pokemon equivalent of a shit-eating grin on its face. One that mirrored the look on its trainer.

Then it clicked. "Thalia, give me a minute here. Dodge anything coming your way, and help look out for your teammate."

"Vileplume, let's get back in this. Use Moonlight while you're protected!"

As the battle continued, I turned to Paul. "Dude, I got it."

"You got what?" He had a look of "the-fuck-are-you-talking-about?"

"Poison Heal."

"Poison what? The hell does that mean?"

"It's Gliscor's ability. Posion Heal. Restores health when poisoned. It's why it took your sludge bomb, and the Toxic after it didn't get poisoned. Also explains the Façade set."

"Well, shit, what do you do about it?"

"Well, it's fast as fuck. So we're gonna have to lure it. Let it get close to your Vileplume, then on my mark, use Seed Bomb. You gotta trust me" I implored.

"Alright man, we'll go for it. I don't get it, but it's better than anything else we got."

We turned back to the battle to see Thalia dodging Stone Edge and Vileplume trying to fend off more Aerial Aces.

(Music Switch: Normal Battle Theme – Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness)

Thalia saw us switch our attention and called back "Alright genius, need to do something here!" She got clipped by a pointed stone as she said that, and got spun around into one of the pools of water. As she dragged herself out, I filled her in. "This is gonna sound weird Thalia, but you gotta trust me. Wait for my mark, and look to freeze the next thing your partner attacks with." She knew better than to trust my crazy ideas these days. They've worked too often in the past; I just hoped my luck would keep it that way.

The other trainers ignored our communication, so thankfully they didn't know our plan. "Already Gliscor, let's end this crap! Quick Attack into Aerial Ace on the flower, go!"

The Pokemon followed the command, speeding around any stray defenses Thalia had setup, and started flying towards Paul's Pokemon. I tensed, waiting for the perfect moment. We'd only get one chance.

Right before the attack connected, I shouted "NOW!"

"Quick Viles, Seed Bomb, now!" Paul yelled.

I needn't give Thalia another command, she saw it and acted. Her Ice Beam was on its way before Paul even finished speaking.

The frosty energy beam hit Vileplume's attack as soon as it was formed, freezing it solid and coating it in a layer of ice. Working as intended.

The rival trainer realized at the last second what was happening, and her eyes widened, "Bail! Dodge it!"

But it was too late, the Pokemon couldn't stop. The frozen Seed Bomb hit head on, resulting in an explosion of energy, and left a light mist in the area. The Gliscor wasn't knocked out, but it was definitely stunned.

I saw the opportunity. "Thalia, fast, hit it with Ice Beam and send it flying with Quick Attack! Hit it hard!"

She took off like lightning, freezing the grounded scorpion before it could recover, and sent it into the closest boulder with a hard slam.

The impact tore through the boulder and broke the ice, and resulted with the Gliscor lying unconscious on the other side of a newly formed pile of rocks. The trainer hung her head and recalled her Pokemon. She looked at her partner and he nodded.

"Alright Gigalith, let's end this nonsense. Hit 'em with Earthquake!"

In a couple fractions of a second, my mind went from 'Shit, she can't tank that' to 'Need to find a way to get off the ground.' Unfortunately, the closest thing to Thalia from where she landed was a pool of water. Then the light bulb went off again.

"Thalia, freeze a spot on that pool on your left, now! Then get on it, quick."

I saw her ears twitch – her acknowledgement she heard me. Then the world went into slow-mo.

The Gigalith slammed its front legs on the ground, sending out a shock wave through the floor that was felt throughout the arena. Thalia was already in the air, freezing a small spot in that pool. She landed on it as the earthquake hit, shaking the whole area and chopping up the water. She had to fall to her belly and dig in with her claws to hold on as the makeshift raft was shaken like a raft in a wave pool.

She was way better off than the Vileplume, though.

The slower flower Pokemon had barely any time to react before the shock wave hit it, sending it flying into the air and landing back down with a _THUD!_ It was down for the count.

Paul shook his head and recalled it. "Well, that was anticlimactic," and he looked at me, smiling. "It's up to you bud."

"Thalia, how about we send these jokers packing?" I could tell the rival trainer was waiting for my move. Probably going to use that Protect bullshit again. But at this point in the battle, I could tell he didn't want to take any more chances. Especially after our last stunt.

"Quick Attack in, and get ready for Iron Tail. But don't charge it just yet. Wait for my cue." She looked back at me, I could tell by the respect in her eyes that she fully trusted me to win this for us. And that's all I could ask for.

She took off running at the Gigalith. Just as she closed in, our rival shouted "Protect!"

"Thalia, STOP!" I yelled, and she slowed down and strolled calmly up to the rock-type. I smiled and shook my head. How predictable.

She was just staring at it, with a simmering green field in between. Both the Gigalith and the trainer were wide-eyed staring at Thalia, awaiting the inevitable. It was actually quite comedic. They were at her mercy, and there was nothing they could do until we cancelled their Protect field.

I called over to her, "Give them an Ice Shard as a welcoming gift from our school; cancel that field. I think you know what to do from there."

If there was ever a contest for the biggest smirk on an Eeveelution, Thalia would have won it right there. She formed a single shard of ice in her paw, her tail already starting to glow white. She gently tossed it at the Protect barrier, which shattered upon contact. As it did, she was already rushing in with a fully charged Iron Tail.

She connected, and sent the Gigalith soaring into next week.

The rock-type slammed into the boards behind the trainers, and when the dust cleared it was knocked out. The crowd in the stadium went nuts, erupting with a roar.

I turned to Paul and gave him a fist bump.

"Shit, dude," was all he could say.

I turned around, and was met with a 50 pound ball of ice-type flying through the air. I caught her in a hug. "You. Were. Amazing. Absolutely incredible. You deserved that win more than anybody."

She looked up at me. "Shut up, Mr. Modest. All that crap was your idea."

I smiled, and we walked over to the judge's table to get our prize. A guy came out to meet us on the way over there.

"You must be Derek?" I asked when we got close. He was dressed in a similar style as Paul, but had shoulder-length blonde hair.

"Sure am. Congratulations on the win, man. That was an awesome fight to watch."

I smiled a bit bigger. "Thanks for the opportunity."

We shook hands with the other trainers when we got to the judge's table. They were given silver medals and walked off, heads hanging a little bit.

The judges then presented us with the gold medals, embossed with an emblem of the league and an image of our stadium, the location of the finals. I took the medal they gave me, and turned to give it to Derek.

Before I even got to say anything, he spoke first. "No way man, you're not giving that to me. You earned every right to that medal."

"But, uhhh," I stammered, "I only won one battle. You and Paul made it all the way here."

He shook his head, smiling. "Not a chance. That's yours, keep it. I'll look forward to battling you next season, if you're still around."

I shook his hand, which he offered. "Hell yeah, man. I'd be down."

I was given a medal for Thalia, too, which I did the honors of hanging around her neck.

"It looks good on you," I said, kissing her on the forehead as I did so. Turns out pale blue fur doesn't hide a blush very well.

Paul and Derek said their goodbyes. "Alright man," Paul said, "we're off to grab some food before everything closes tonight. Catch you around."

"Pleasure battling with you, gentlemen," I replied. As Thalia and I began to walk away, I checked my watch. It wasn't as late in the night as I thought it was.

"Well, we could still do something tonight, if you really wanted to," I told her.

She thought about the proposal for a moment. "Sure. Can we just, like, watch a movie of something? I'm pretty drained."

"Oh yeah, right," I scratched the back of my head. "Battling does that to you, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm the one doing all the hard work, idiot." She gave me a playful shove off the footpath we were walking on.

"Careful. I won't make popcorn for you," I joked, giving her a shove back.

She feigned hurt. "You wouldn't!"

* * *

We were back at the room, lounging around with a movie on in the background. Thalia chose a sci-fi/chick flick thing from Netflix, and I had tuned out a while ago. She was still absentmindedly watching while munching on the last couple of popcorn kernels. And laying her head on my chest as I laid back on the futon. Of course.

As the movie credits started to roll, I sat up and shut the TV off. Thalia sighed as she fell off me.

"Hey, sorry, but I'm going to bed." I got up to go change and get ready to go to sleep.

When I came back a few minutes later, she was still laying there, a curled up ball of cuteness. As I laid back, she rolled over and nuzzled up against my shoulder.

(More music! Look up Eminence – Falling Stars)

"Hey," she said, "I have a question for you."

I looked down to see her looking up to the ceiling. "Shoot," I replied.

"Ever have a time where you want to tell someone something, but you're not quite sure how to put it?"

"Of course. Happens every once in a while. I find that it's better to just say what's on your mind. That way you don't regret it if something goes unsaid."

I looked down at her again. "Why, what do you want to tell me?"

"I…. Uh…. H-How…How'd you know?" Obviously I caught her by surprise.

I smiled. "You've been living with me for almost a month now. Don't you think I've gotten to know you well enough to tell when there's something on your mind?"

"Y-Yeah… I guess so." She took a deep breath, then went for it. "How do you feel about me? Like, as your partner?"

I think I could kind of tell where she was trying to go with this. I chose my words carefully. "I think you're an incredibly cute ball of Eeveelution. You're fast; you adapt well to changes, and you're smart enough to anticipate things and act accordingly." I shifted, moving to wrap her up in an embrace. "I also think that you're caring, compassionate, and a ton of fun to have around. I'm thankful to have you with me." I took a moment to let my words sink in.

"Thanks," she said with a sniffle, "it means a lot."

"Sure. I mean it." We laid there together before she spoke up again.

"Y'know there something else." She said. "I've been thinking a lot lately. About everything that's happened since I came to live with you. After you-know-who gave me up. I've realized that you mean a lot to me. You gave me a place to stay and a bed, sure. But you also treated me like you've had me since I was an Eevee." She looked at me in the eyes, dark blue gaze unfaltering, but soft. "You cared for me so much more than just a member of your team." She paused again, waiting to find the right words.

"You mean so much more to me than just a trainer. I need to know. How would you feel about us being something more?"

It was my turn to be taken by surprise. I could kind of feel her edging the topic, but the question still felt like she dropped a rock on me when she threw it out there. I felt like my answer held the weight of the universe with it. I let the silence drag on a bit more, making sure that I chose the wording of my answer very carefully. Picking the right words was harder than any paper I've ever written.

"You're asking if I want to be in a relationship, right? Well, why would I say no? Ever since he asked me to take that Poke Ball, I would think to myself every once in a while: 'Did I make the right choice? Is taking her going to be the best decision, for both of us?' I think tonight you've answered that question. Honestly, having you here with me just feels so natural now, like we've been together here for a lot longer than a month. And you've been a joy ever since I've had you." I could see that she was giving me her full attention, hungry for every word I said.

"So, would I like to be your boyfriend? Absolutely. I think I'd be a fool to say no."

She buried her head in my chest after my answer. She whispered, muffled by her position, "You have no idea how happy that makes me." I reached around to scratch her head, behind her ears. She snuggled in closer. Despite being an ice-type, she was incredibly warm next to me.

"I'm glad that you've warmed up to me so well recently. Those first couple days had me kind of worried," I mentioned, thinking back to when I first brought her home.

"Yeah, I was kind of cold back then, huh?" She reminisced. "Actually that brings me to my next question." I gave her my attention back, not knowing where she was going with this. "I have a… uh… kind of an issue…" I could tell she was blushing, even if I couldn't see it.

I pulled her back closer. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

She sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm not sure how to put this, so I'll just throw this out there." She looked back at me. "I'm in heat. And now that we've agreed to be committed to each other, I, um… I want you to do something about it."

I chuckled. "Well I wasn't expecting to get laid tonight."

That comment was met with a paw across the face. "Hey, I'm serious here. It's been bothering me, like all week."

I kissed her cheek. "So is that why you've been so touchy-feely lately?"

"Kinda."

"Well, you have to promise me that this is what you really want. That, and to tell me the minute you're uncomfortable. The last thing I want to do is hurt you."

"Geez, do you have to be a damn gentleman all the time?" She asked, half joking. She moved so that she was on top of me, straddling me.

I kissed her on the cheek, adding "That depends on how you want me."

She lowered her face to mine, whispering "I want you just the way you are."

I started to lean up to pull my sleeping shorts off, when she pushed me back down. "One condition though, she said, completely serious." I gave her a 'go-for-it' look. She pointed to the translator, still on my ear. I had forgotten about it because I wear it almost all the time.

"But I won't be able to understand you," I protested.

Leaning down again, she said "Trust me, it'll make it better," and pulled off the translator, setting it on the nightstand next to us. "Glaceon," she added, back to speaking in her normal Pokespeak.

 **[Lemon Warning]**

With that, she leaned down on me, going in for a kiss, while simultaneously pulling off my pants with her hind legs. Never thought I'd be having a Pokemon do that for me. I also thought I never would be kissing a Pokemon, but I'd also never be saying that again.

She came closer and our lips touched. She was surprisingly warm. Within moments, she was inside my mouth, our tongues battling for dominance. Which wasn't fair, by the way, because it turns out she has a way longer tongue than me. I held her closer, relaxing and enjoying every moment of our kiss. "Eooooon…" she moaned into the connection. It just felt so right.

By then I was more than ready to go, for obvious reasons. Her lips still locked to mine, she lowered herself down onto me, slowly enough to let me feel her ease into her slit. She was already really tight because of our size difference, and then came to a wall. It must have been her first time, too.

Knowing what was coming next, she slammed herself onto me, crying out with a "Glaceon!" and breaking our kiss. I held her against me, kissing her forehead and rubbing her back. "Easy," I consoled her, "Go ahead when you're ready, the pain will fade…."

Way sooner than I was expecting, she began to move again, a gentle swaying of her hips back and forth. To me, it felt like heaven. She gradually began shifting to a more vertical movement, and I started to meet her on the down strokes of her thrusts. She closed her eyes, and moaned "Gla. Ceon. Gla. Ceon," In motion with our thrusts.

After a while a good couple of minutes of letting her set the pace, I decided to pick up the tempo a bit. I began to thrust into her a bit harder and faster, and she was clearly enjoying it. She let her tongue hang out of her mouth as I bounced her up and down. I gently pulled her head back down to mine, this time taking the tongue battle into her mouth, but she had other pleasures on her mind. I took the opportunity to explore her mouth as she was enjoying me. I licked around her sharp teeth, and back to wrap with her tongue again.

She must have been approaching her climax, letting me know by the longer and longer moans she was eliciting into my mouth as we made out.

Suddenly, she broke our kiss and let out a loud "Glaceeeeooooon!" and I felt her clench down on me. Her orgasm hit her hard, and she let herself fall against me as her other muscles gave way. She came, soaking her and my thighs and the sheets beneath us.

I didn't last much longer, and came as she was still lying limp against my chest. "I'm cumming Thalia!" I warned her, and let my seed splash into her.

"Eon!" She squeaked in surprise, although she was expecting it.

I slid out of her wet hole, and let her slide off of me and onto the futon next to me. I turned and wrapped her in a tight hug. "Hope that felt good, girl."

 **[End Lemon. You can come back out now]**

We laid in each other's arms, content to stay in the afterglow. She found the strength to snuggle in closer and wrapped her own legs around me, securing our embrace. "You have officially made me the happiest Glaceon on the planet."

"You're welcome, Thalia," I leaned in to kiss her softly again, then pulled back as soon as our lips touched. "Wait a minute. How the hell can I understand you?" I asked, dumbfounded.

She reached up to give me a quick lick on the nose. "That's what happens when you mate with a Pokemon," she said, "We've bonded together, now you can understand me perfectly."

I turned back to resume the hug we were in moments before. "That's odd but whatever." I took one of her tassels in my hand, rubbing it. She cooed against my touch. "And you're right," I whispered, "That was much better without the translator."

She nudged me back. "Told you so," she replied.

I held her tighter. "Goodnight Thalia."

"Goodnight Alan. Thank you so much."

With that, I quickly fell asleep in her embrace.

* * *

That night, I dreamt a normal, cute couple dream. Thalia and I were just laying together in bed, content to hold one another in each other's arms.

Suddenly, Thalia started to glow all white, like her skin became a bright LED light. I had to shield my eyes from her blindingly bright body.

It lasted only a couple of seconds. Then, just as soon as it started, the light was gone.

 **A/N: Oh boy. Another one done. Firstly, I'll apologize for taking all summer to update. I could complain about being busy with a full-time job, and being a lazy bum, and all that other crap that you don't care about. But you're here to read fictional content, not my complaints and excuses. So I'll spare you the details, and say enjoy this chapter. It was tough because this was a key connecting chapter between where I was and where I wanted the story to go. So take solace in that, although my free time for writing is pretty much gone for now, I know exactly where I want to go with it. Expect updates on holidays and breaks and stuff now :D Keep it cool guys. Oh, and feel free to drop a review, or favorite/follow, all the usual jazz. Until next time.**


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